


A Little Help

by hamsandwichlike



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Growing Up, Insecurities, One Shot, Puberty, Woo boy, a lot more bromance than romance, bros being bros, wholesome content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:01:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27521188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamsandwichlike/pseuds/hamsandwichlike
Summary: Hop's dealing with an unpleasant side effect of growing up.-or-A fun story about shaving.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Sonia, Hop/Yuuri | Gloria
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64





	A Little Help

**Author's Note:**

  * For [UltraInstinctWaffleIron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltraInstinctWaffleIron/gifts).



> yea, so this fic is set two years post-game, 1yr post-isle, Hop's fifteen, he and Gloria have been dating for about a year and she points out to him that he's got some peach fuzz and he has a little meltdown. My headcanon is that his dad passed away just before he was born, but thankfully he's got a big bro.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, nor did I create it. I am just writing about it for fun and also bc I love it
> 
> Warnings:  
> \- mild language  
> \- deceased parent (trigger warning)  
> \- shirtless Leon. and some mild suggestiveness

Hop got out of the shower, dried off, and stood in front of the bathroom mirror, rubbing the fog off so he could look at his face. 

A long sigh blew out of him.

_Ugh. Gloria was right. Why didn’t he notice it sooner? His mum even noticed last night._

There was a thin dusting of hairs on his chin and above his lip and now that he actually thought about it, it was more than noticeable.

His shoulders sunk as he looked at the razor next to the sink, then at the lather. He dug both things out of the cupboard earlier that day after he made sure everyone was out.  
They probably used to be Lee’s at one point. Hop remembered how when he was younger, his brother would come home, get the same exact things out and crack on like it was the easiest thing in the world. Eventually, he started having a barber do all the work for all his matches and the tele, but before he would always do it on his own.  
Lee always made everything look easy...

When he came home at the beginning of summer, Sonia was telling him that he “looks older for some reason,” and talking all about how he’s “growing up.” Then to make things worse, his mum started making a fuss about it just before Lee got home yesterday how he “looks just like his brother.”

Hop’s face was turning red when looked into the mirror again, examining the small, darker hairs on his lip and under his chin a little more closely.

For some reason he thought about Lee’s sideburns and chops, picturing them on his face.  
_Eugh._ He cringes at the idea of looking even more like his brother than he already does.

He only really started thinking about it earlier that week when Gloria was home. One thing led to another and they wound up in their usual snogging spot.  
All was going smoothly, until his girlfriend broke away from him, giggling and searching his face.  
When he asked her what was wrong, she ran her thumb over his lip, “just tickles,” she told him before she leaned back in, picking up where they left off.  
He thought about it all night even after he fell asleep.  
_How’s she supposed to kiss him if he’s tickling her all the time?_

_Alright. He has to do this…_

_How hard could it be?_

He’s seen it in films and books. It’s just a few simple steps. Easy-peasy, and that’s all there is to it.

Hop patted the sides of his stubbly face and turned the water on. He picked up the razor, looking at the old blades with just a little rust starting to form here and there.

_Okay, that’s alright. This can still work._

He took the container of lather, twisting the lid open, blinking at the… nearly empty jar with just a bit of dried out lather left in the bottom...

He blinked and turned the container over, looking at the fuzzy expiry date labeled for...  
_Fifteen years ago?!_

_He didn’t even think to check the expiry date before he started this! Brilliant! Now what’s he going to do?_

“Hop, are you done in there yet?” Lee’s voice called from down the hall.

_Shite!_

“Yeah, just a few more minutes!”

_Okay, now he’s gotta do this quick. Here goes nothing._

Hop had the razor held up to his face when his brother came into the bathroom in his workout clothes. A startled frown was plastered on his face as Lee stopped dead in his tracks. 

The older man stared at the younger one and laughed.  
“What the hell are you doing?” Lee asked him.

Hop’s face turned bright red, a flustered and angry heat started to burn over him.

“What does it look like?” He grumbled, but the smile on Lee’s face just got bigger.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that,” his brother added with another chuckle. He came into the bathroom behind him, turning his back to him to use the loo.

Hop slumped, dropping the razor and staring at himself. Lee closed the lid and flushed, standing next to Hop at the mirror, taking out his toothbrush and all his usual stuff.

“When did you start shaving?”

“I haven’t yet...” Hop huffed, flopping onto the closed loo.

“Well for starters, you’re going to do a bodge job without- is that my old razor?... Where’d you find this thing?” Lee grinned again, sticking his toothbrush in his mouth, scrubbing at his teeth for a few seconds, but Hop was too sulky to say a word.

Like Gloria knowing and then his mom finding out wasn’t enough… now his brother had to walk in on him right when he was about to do it. It seemed like now Lee was always poking his head into things when he really didn’t need it.

“So how come you wanna start?” Lee asked him with his mouth full of suds.

If everyone else noticed then why didn’t he?  
Lee was always so oblivious.

Frustration built in him about the whole situation. The last thing he wanted was for his brother to know about it.

First, it was Sonia, and then mum...

_… Gloria…_

Hop’s resolve crumbled.

It was starting to become apparent that he wasn’t going to be able to do this on his own because he has no idea what he’s doing, and he still doesn’t know what to do.

“I came home and Sonia and mum started talking about it, and I didn’t know what they were talking about, so I just ignored it… and then I realized... and I didn’t know what to do...and- and then _Gloria…_ ” Hop’s face went redder by the second, bent over with his face buried in his hands.

“Tickles when you kiss ‘er?” Lee asked, rinsing his brush.

Hop frowned and looked up, and his brother smiled knowingly at him.

“Stay right here, I’ll be right back.”

Hop stayed sitting on the loo while Lee went to his room and came back with a towel wrapped around his waist, carrying a few things that he tossed onto the vanity along with a can of shaving foam. He had a new pack of razors that he quickly opened, pulling a new one out while holding his own. Lee reached over to Hop and handed him the razor, gesturing for him to come stand next to him by the sink, flicking the water. Hop lifted his head and shook off his embarrassment, taking a spot at the sink, him and his brother both in front of the mirror. 

"Alright. Just like this."

Lee splashed some water on his face and waited for him to do the same. With their faces both damp, he took the can of foam and sprayed some in his hand. The blob of white foam bubbled up, getting bigger every second.  
Hop inwardly laughed. It looked like it was dynamaxing.

His brain’s been stuck in lab assistant mode all summer since he got home. It’s all he and Sonia ever talk about.  
The past few weeks have been intense, but now his brother’s home which always means he can catch a break. 

Hop took the can and put some foam in his hand watching carefully how Lee lathered it between his palms and then pats his jaw with it. He follows suit, 1ooking down at his hands that are covered in white foam, applying it in blobs all over his face until him and Lee look like jellicents. 

_Alright, so they both look like proper idiots... now what…_

Lee picked up his razor and ran it under the water for a few seconds, holding it up to his face, looking over at Hop. 

"One spot at a time--always with the grain."

With the razor held up to his cheek, Lee ran the blade in a downward motion, demonstrating with one smooth swipe, waiting for Hop to do the same. He’s still a little nervous, but he holds the razor up to his face for the second time that night and starts to follow that motion, dragging the blade over his left cheek, watching as the foam disappeared, leaving behind a clean patch.

Lee dipped his foamy razor into the water, rinsing it off, dark stubble running down the drain.

“Rinse every few swipes or so, and that’s all there is to it.”

Hop blinked at his reflection, then looked down at his razor with little hairs in the blades.

He repeated the same motion a few more times feeling a bit more confident, trading rinses with his brother who nodded and smiled. Hop was almost done with the left side of his face when Lee stopped for a second.  
“Alright, ready for the tricky part?”

The tricky part?

Hop’s nervousness returned to him as Lee started showing him a different technique, thinning his lips so he could get the spot above them. He was using the new angle to get the whiskers over his lip and under his nose while Hop tried to imitate the movements, changing the angle of his razor, tilting his head.  
He watched Lee one more time, and went for it, but when the sharp blade nicked his lip, a dot of red blood began to form.  
_Bloody hell._  
_Now he looks even more like an idiot._

Lee chuckled beside him.  
“That happens. It’ll stop in a minute,” he told him, shaving his other cheek, being extra careful not to get the facial hair on his jawline.  
“Here, angle it more like this,” he corrected, as Hop rearranged himself and started back at it, getting as much of it as he could.

Eventually, he managed to get it all. Leon was already nearly done, lifting his chin to get underneath, watching Hop move onto his right cheek, that same look of determination that he’s always had on his face since he could remember. It seemed like only a little while ago, his brother was an energetic twelve-year-old kid, dragging Gloria to the gyms and begging him for the endorsement. Now he’s well on his way to his career, studying all over Galar, going to his best mate’s, now girlfriend’s matches while also going back and forth to school every year, always coming back a little different; filling out and getting taller.  
He checks himself in the mirror and figures in another year or two that he’ll be as tall as he is.  
He noticed how he goes over his chin and under his jaw, going straight for a clean shave without a second thought.

He’s become his own person too.

“Now what?” Hop asks, looking over at him, all the foam gone from his face.

Lee shows him how to rinse and dry, making sure to tell him to always wash all the hairs out of the sink so their mum wouldn’t come upstairs and complain. He takes the hand towel off the rack and pats his face dry before his brother passes him a bottle of stuff that looked like cologne. The label read “aftershave.”

“How much of this stuff do I put on?” He asked while Lee pulled the clippers out of the cupboard.

“A bit-- just don’t put too much. Rub it on your hands and pat it on your face.”

_How much is too much?_

Hop shook a bunch of it onto his hand and rubbed it around and did like Lee told him to, the strong smell hitting him, before he handed it back to him. The greasiness made his skin shine as he rubbed it in, getting everywhere he shaved until he dropped his hands, calling it good.  
He waited for Lee to notice that he was done, but his brother was still doing his own.

Hop checked his face again, making sure he didn’t miss anything.  
The little nick on his lip looked like it never even happened as he noticed his smooth skin, a satisfied smile starting to grow on his face.

“Better?” Lee looks over at him and grins while he picks up his clippers and turns them on.  
“Yeah,” Hop admits, rubbing the back of his neck.

He picked up the towel and stuck it back on the rack, feeling a weight lifting off his chest while Lee was sharpening the edges of his chops.

“Seriously though, where’d you find this thing?” Lee asked. He was holding up his old razor.  
“I don’t know, back of some cupboard somewhere,” Hop shrugged, “found this too, but it was empty and expired,” he added, picking up the lather, waving around the empty container.  
He set it on the vanity before Lee picked it up and looked at it. He turned it a few times, turning off his clippers, his happy expression changing.

Hop remembers when he dug it out and how the font and color was faded...it almost seemed like it didn’t belong with everything else sitting in the cupboard. Why would Lee want to use it… in fact, that was the weirdest thing about it...the expiry date on it was labeled for fifteen years ago…

“Why’s it so old?” Hop asked, but his brother was still turned away from him, his shoulders shaking with a little chuckle.

“This was dad’s,” Lee said, turning to him with a half-smile.

_...Dad’s…_

Hop never met his dad, but he always wondered what he was like. He was always curious because Lee knew him for a little while… he always wanted to ask what he was like, but he never quite seemed to gather up the courage to ask…  
When he asked his mum, she would always tell him “just like the two of you,” but that never made any sense to him.  
When he was younger he always used to tell himself that he didn’t need a dad because he would always have Lee. Lee taught him everything.  
Now he hardly asks his brother for help with anything anymore… in fact, they hardly even see each other much.  
After the mandatory family dinner planned by their mum tonight, he’s going to see Gloria, and he’s almost sure that Lee’s going to Wedgehurst since Sonia’s already cleared their lab schedules for the next two days. When they’re not busy at home, they’re both working. They never really had time to hang out like they used to, but maybe it’s okay that Lee pokes his head in every once and a while… _even when he needs some privacy_ …

It’s kind of like his weird way of showing that he cares.

He doesn’t really know what he would have done if Lee wasn’t home, and now that he thinks of it, he’s really happy that he was.

The two of them silently stared at the container for a second, both deep in thought, before his brother tossed it in his hand a few times and threw it into the bin across the room.

“Can’t use it if it’s empty, right? Keep that razor for now, and maybe next time we’re in Wyndon we can get you your own stuff. Sound good?”  
Lee ruffed up the hair on his head like he used to do when Hop was younger and went back to trimming.

“Thanks, Lee,” Hop said.  
“No problem, little bro,” he grinned, “If you need help with something next time, just ask, okay?”

Hop gave him a nod and picked up his new razor while his brother started to untuck his towel from around his waist.  
"now get out, I gotta trim up the rest."

Hop shriveled up, a little grossed out, turning around to leave the bathroom. He could hear his brother grunting and flexing at himself in the bathroom mirror, then the sound of the shower running and the door shutting.

He walked back to his bedroom, pulling a clean tee-shirt out of his dresser so he could pull it over his head. He set his new razor on his dresser next to the photo of him and Lee before the Gym Challenge.  
It seemed like all that happened ages ago.  
He remembers how he and Lee used to camp out and train when he wasn’t doing all those things with Gloria.  
He always used to be worried about what his brother thought of him then, always needing his approval. He laughed a little at his younger self. 

He doesn’t need his brother’s approval for anything now, but he’s glad he can always count on him for a little help every now and then.

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been stalking this fandom for quite some time and I thought it was about time I added my contribution...  
> I got a request for some wholesome content, but I'm hoping that I'll get to add more to the postwickshipping and lionheartshipping fandoms eventually, I love them both so much, so I think I'll be writing more about the romantic stuff soon!
> 
> Thank you to UltraInstinctWaffleIron and MediumRareBeefWellington for kicking my ass to put this up
> 
> Hope everyone enjoyed!


End file.
